Nine minutes into his first press conference since the 2013 NFL Draft, Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco was answering a question about his approach to the offseason when a microphone taped to the stand fell to the podium.

Thirty seconds later, it happened again.

“Wow,” a grinning Telesco said, “a brand new media tent and we have this taped up here?”

Well, Tom, that’s how it goes sometimes. You can build something up, make it look shiny and new, and then out of nowhere … things fall apart.

It happens with microphones. It happens with relationships. And boy, does it ever happen with NFL teams.

Telesco dazzled in his first year as a GM. Let’s make that perfectly clear. With limited resources and suspect personnel, he went MacGyver on the Chargers’ roster and manufactured a high-powered machine.

Yes, there were a few whiffs (see: Derek Cox), but the hits by and large drowned out the misses.

Here’s the real question, though: Can he do it again?

Great executives aren’t measured by a couple of marquee draft picks or free-agent signings. Well, maybe they are in the NBA, where one or two additions can provide a 30-win facelift. But in the NFL, where championship sustenance must often be plucked from the draft’s fifth and sixth rounds, the truly elite minds distinguish themselves by consistently upgrading — or at the very least, maintaining — their team’s level of talent.

There’s very little patience among fans anymore, and quite frankly, you can’t blame them for that. Who would be content with sitting through a “rebuild” when, in each of the last two years, one of the 12 playoff teams had the worst record in the league the year before?

Rare are the days when five wins one year become seven the next, then 10 after that, then 13 and a Super Bowl run. Instead, records are like dice that get thrown back into the Yahtzee cup once the season is complete.

That’s why Telesco rebuffed the idea that the Chargers were ever rebuilding in the first place, asserting that the plan from day one was to simply add pieces “and keep this thing going.”

“I don’t think that anybody wants to go through rebuilds because that just means that this could take a long time,” Telesco said. “A lot of people have shown that you can get gradually better early on.”

But you can also get worse. And not always so gradually. As my esteemed colleague Nick Canepa pointed out Wednesday, the 12-4 Texans of 2012 went 2-14 this year, while the 13-3 Falcons dropped to 4-12.

So here’s where Telesco can prove himself. Here’s where he can show how a young mind can learn new tricks and stay ahead of the competition.

Among the areas for which Telesco expressed concern Wednesday included: infusing speed into the offense, shoring up the third-down defense, adding a “dynamic” element to the return game on special teams, and figuring out a way to force more turnovers.

They’re all significant needs — as are finding reliable cornerbacks, maintaining a fragile (and aging) offensive line, and keeping difference-makers such as Donald Butler on the roster.

So will it happen? Will the Chargers take this molehill of success and turn it into a mountain?

“We knew we had a lot of work to do, and still have a lot of work in front of us,” Telesco said. “We have to go out and earn it. No matter what may have happened, we have to go back in the offseason and really earn our way back.”

Props to Telesco so far. He’s earned every bit of praise he’s received.

But the Chargers still have a long way to go and, if not properly cared for, a long way to fall.